thank. god i am. president putin says he is ready to sign a pardon for a russian tycoon mikhail political skate has spent more than a decade behind bars to embezzle and one talks of asian. into it came off to krishna faced more and still it was a questions from journalists on russia's domestic and foreign policy. also on the scene international says hardline seaward rebels have astonished at a new form of tyranny in forcing away enough terror with secret prisons which run as young as a measure they tortured. bride and approach to its london rejects any you offered to fund food banks despite hundreds of sons of people in britain not getting enough to eat.

this is all see international coming to live from moscow hello and welcome to the program and with start with breaking news this hour president legend repeaters as hill sign a motion to pardon child russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky the businessman who spend more than ten years behind bars for embezzlement has reportedly already filed a petition to be pardoned. now reports. well the president was hosting a media conference which lasted over four hours but the biggest news came after it finished he was surrounded by journalists and someone asked the question about health of course the end suddenly the president said that the former take on had asked him to be released and he says the man has already spent over ten years behind bars and he is ready to sign all the necessary papers to wed in three you

don't know who the kosky recently wrote a petition asking me to pardon him but he spent more than ten years in prison this is a serious punishment he cites humanitarian reasons saying his mother is sick i believe taking jew account of all the circumstances it's possible to take a respective decision and in the near future i will sign a decree to pardon him artie's managed to reach. the mother by phone let's listen to what she had to say that really was. the news came absolutely out of the blue last time i spoke with him was back in august and he didn't show any intention of filing a petition i totally support any decision of his he needs to be set free his children and even grandchildren grew up without him because of course he used to be among the wealthiest people in the world and the more the most influential in russia until he was arrested back in two thousand and three charged and found guilty of fraud and then in

a second case was found guilty of money laundering and in turn this latest announcement from the president was we did it with applause by human rights groups would reportedly came as a complete surprise to us and even his family members. and journalists and broadcast things harder kosky deserved a harsh punishment for the crimes he committed. sure if it might be people who think that nearly a stone embezzle on a massive scale is actually going to be rushing back to life because all the people around the world and russians too of course cheekily feel the call of course he got what he deserved he's been in prison for ten years but his crimes were quite enormous and so i think anybody who would be sort of cheering this on you know very strange people who would want a soldier embezzler to be released what kind of people are they i can understand people in ourselves a place that the arctic thirty in part because their cause i think was a good cause you know try to stay the night we can argue whether they did the right

tactics we're going to the right methods but they're cool is a good one a noble cause holocaust was an embezzler and i think got russian people particularly people fair minded people around the world will defeat all of our us put across can think the best place for the retail and financial analysts to ban areas billie's pays him was pressed into parting hard and it's about all a political move i think there's two messages ones to the international community and ones of domestic audience internationally the relations with the rest of the world have been deteriorating rapidly and perhaps too soon with this is trying to put a stop to that or a marker and to slow down their process and says. it's the world secondly it's a mystically of the corporate governance rule of law have been increasing issue here in russia and learning how to kosky has been a cause celeb in all of this. is perhaps again an olive branch to those people to

say that the kremlin is i.c.d. listening a bit closer to what the people want to see happen. and now is here in the studio with me to give us more background about the tycoon and i'm pleased to see it in the studio so of course the debate is beginning about the future of me but his opponents is also very controversial that's right. because been behind bars for most of putin's time in the kremlin now the news has shocked many and we will surely be integrated for some time partly because many have followed his controversial trial around the world then several sentences over the past ten years and here in russia he still remains a decisive divisive figure. around the world this is the most familiar image of former russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky. is hereby sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment this was once the epicenter of his power and stature

the former c.e.o. and founder of the oil company yukos built a fortune that made him russia's richest man after the collapse of the soviet union snapping up state assets at a bargain price and often dubious circumstances but it was a short lived fairy tale hundred corpses fall from grace began in october two thousand and three he was arrested at novosibirsk airport on charges of fraud and tax evasion he and his business partner plotted on that day that were found guilty in two thousand and five and handed an eight year sentence four years later fresh charges were brought against the two men and in twenty ten both were convicted of embezzling two hundred eighteen million tons of oil worth twenty seven billion he with dollars and money laundering they were sentenced to fourteen years in prison later reduced to thirteen after repeal the term includes time already served which means harder costly and lebedev could have remained in jail intil twenty sixteen

throughout his sentence supporters maintain his innocence khodorkovsky was not to blame because he had a whole team of very experienced lawyers who told whole years to tell him that. everything he did was within the law it was the blame of the laws that had the zero zero poles with others seeming far less forgiving just like it counts in a famous russian movie i'm sure that's a thief's places in prison he's accused of stealing tax evasion and fraud from the onset harder koskie supporters claimed he was singled out among other tycoons because of his political ambitions he actively criticised russian politics and financed opposition parties. arguably russia's most high profile prisoner harder core ski has found much support outside russia but within his own country public opinion is mixed i think that most of russian public smeller reckon the activity or

all those people like all that of course and that's why i don't think that. the russian broad public unlike liberals for whom call the coast really is a he can find compression news of his pardon and imminent freedom came as something of a surprise for all sides including apparently his lawyers what he decides to do now is the tantalizing on no where the looking after his sick mother would be enough to keep occupied. so many so all of the reasons to do it now it's a hard question that's certainly at the center of the debate right now especially on social media the two sides is this a p.r. stunt is this the head of the olympics the other side what's wrong with that and in free maybe it's the best thing to do right now and if the olympics is a way for russia to move forward in this way what's wrong with that another big argument was it expected some people say there were some hints that this could be happening others say it came out of the blue and they're not really isn't exactly his mother wasn't aware you spoke to her obviously not someone that watches the

news every day she wasn't aware that possibly her son will be let free right now is in the studio and he said many thanks indeed. and political analyst dmitri babich explain to us how the decision might affect the new case against yukos a cold skase former oil company. you're going to want a huge company you're. billions of dollars so it and a lot of their a lot of this minute was not quite clean because you know how they're going to get himself acknowledged that they give the store tax up the money. a lot of this money is now abroad so i'm not surprised because it's been investigated are so don't have a horse q. free doesn't exclude the possibility that he may be questioned about this money so i hope that george will be found out and probably the russian state will get its money back now investors are expressing their opinion on the presidential pardon

through the markets let's not get more on the reaction and hold of course case but i'm sure business future with casey pilbeam from a business venture capital. they're trying to carry investors are happy is that right they are do well as far as the numbers are concerned we've got the my sexy index here is surging by one point three percent that's the most since september so i can tell you vassar's are looking at this very positively indeed and and what it represents that's what it's all about at the moment in deed the numbers are surging . but why why does her release matter to you you know what do you know it's all about what it represents to investors i think that's the important thing here we are in this year he's made twenty thirty in the year to fight corruption to really jazz up the stock markets and get the money to rush to get investors here spending their cash in a capsule has been a big problem

a lot of that is because of red tape and people are reluctant to spend their money here is what it represents really jazz's up the image of the financials here in russia and that's why we've got them surging at the moment and the clues about his future what is he going to do this is being a very interesting thing yearly and that's what everybody is asking themselves at the moment what's he going to do with this money because we are presuming that he has some left you would think being the richest man in russia once upon a time that he stored it somewhere else maybe abroad where is it is he going to go to states where majority of his family are living is that where the money is is in a tax haven somewhere else does he still have friends here too to invest money where does he still have supporters all these questions up in the air at the moment and certainly we want to know how much money he's got left where he's going to be spending it we know that the company that made him his richest man with that was orphaned of what one would imagine he's still got some tucked away somewhere. interesting. theory. well. thank you very much.

this surprising announcement about her cost came after her village of repression faced a tough q. and a session last thing well over four hours the some tricks journalists pushing on included developments in ukraine the newly adopted amnesty for prisoners here in russia as well as the strange ties between moscow and washington and. told us about the president's responses. well the media conference itself was attended by over thirteen hundred journalists and of course they discussed a huge variety of topics and edward snowden was. the former n.s.a. contractor who leaked scores of controversial documents on u.s. surveillance programs across the world he received temporary asylum in russia is exact whereabouts are still unknown due to security reasons pointing to the president they never met personally but it does him as a character who definitely made an impact on the world the president's also

commented on his relations with barack obama and on the tactics used by u.s. security services and couldn't resist using some of that famous humor he's known to have mastered. what we are now after snowden's leaks and america was shocked to learn her telephone had been wiretapped. she's absolutely fine so don't worry she knew what i russia's relations with the u.s. after leaks. ok. you want to know how my feel about mr obama after snowden's leaks i feel jealous i feel jealous because he can do these things and get off scot free still there is nothing to be happy about but on the other hand there's no reason to be frustrated however tough the criticism against the us may be all these measures have always been aimed at tackling terrorism but there must be some clear rules and certain agreements including those of ethics ukraine was another issue discussed the country's been going through rough times in the past

few weeks with the protest taking place both for and against moving closer with the e.u. moscow is giving a fifteen billion dollars loan and according to the president that is being done primarily to help the country called the severe economic problems it's also experiencing and what's going to put an added he doesn't think that integration with the e.u. is the core of the current wave of protests. those who are pushing forward the idea of signing an association agreement with the european union these people would govern in ukraine not so long ago. the foreign minister also headed the parliament to machine is a former prime minister you schenker was ukraine's president why didn't they sign these papers when they were in power no one was standing in their way so you could have gone ahead and sign them and there'd be no problem today i have legitimate down to the protester about moving closer to the e.u.

it's an internal political struggle and signing or not signing this document is just a pretext. now another reason why news about that of course is a such a surprise is because the amnesty that their authority is currently are working on and that should affect up to twenty five thousand people that was discussed and for the first time during all these years no one actually asked a question about about us even during the actual conference in itself but they did talk about. should benefit from the upcoming the sea and the so called arctic thirty activists were arrested in the rushing water and are being charged with going isn't that the should expect seeing these charges all of these charges lifted against them and the president did comment on the organization itself saying that he admires everyone who fights for the safety of the environment but he doesn't agree with the methods that greenpeace uses. and then ship it entered our exclusive economic zone was not responding and they tried to scale the platform

after attempt to stop the second boat started ramming all good guards is that a civil discussion about protecting the environment it's just p.r. or an attempt at blackmail racketeering or someone's order to disturb our work on developing resources what happened should serve as a lesson and unite us along with greenpeace into an effort to minimize environmental risks instead of just making a fuss. of course these are only a few subjects which were talked about during the media conference the president also spoke about recent diplomatic breakthroughs like the one with the syrian chemical weapons on to deal and any breakthrough or would be iranian nuclear program and also spoke about the need to protect traditional values saying that conserve being conservative isn't about keeping society from moving forward but it's more about preventing it from rolling back. as i was saying to national no

news break. i wonder if we can add democracy at least be expansion is democracy of the kindest dollars by george w. bush to that at least a few tolkien ideologies on par with communism on par with nazis long par with militant really gents you know the ideologies that can also make to lead to an increase in violence i think the problem is the idea that by military force you can be propagated government create a state of anarchy and hope that democracy would spontaneously but also. old. technology innovations called elites developments from

around russia we've got the future covered. doughty international welcome back children as young as eight hears old being held and tortured across a network of secret is the most prisons in syria according to shocking new reports the jails are operated by one of the fiercest rebel groups the islamic state in iraq and the levant its practices and laws are so harsh that amnesty international has equated it to a reign of terror smoking or behavior deemed lawmaker can lead to lengthen

sentences at these essential centers and even wires and selena nasser amnesty international researcher told us what people face in these jails. there is widespread torture torture of adults including and also children the most common form of torture is a floodgate. flogging against detainees take place on a daily. on a daily every day basically it includes flogging against children we have witnesses former detainees who told us that they have seen children as young as thirteen to fourteen being flogged scores of times the detainees are sentenced to death at a trial that does not exceed three minutes which is. outrageous really one former detainee told us that he once counted the number of

lashes falling on a child he counted until ninety four and he stopped counting any more. although on paper on tan sound forces are united on the goal to topple president assad in taxes there's precious little unity fighting between rebel groups for temperature and power is not commonplace and it's the moderates taking a b. saying just last week for example the secretary k'naan told the free syrian army was executed by radicals but as. can now reports washington's commencement so the rebels in syria means it's willing to talk to even the most hardline groups washington says it's willing to negotiate with the so-called islamic front in syria just days after the front kicked the western backed supreme military council out of their headquarters and seized their warehouses to do we can engage these on a front of course because they're not designated and given you yet the islamic

front includes groups that are demanding a hard line shari'a state to be a strategic mistake if the us administration or europe or their allies would be engaging in a partnership and a partnership meaning they would be collaborating with organizations that are the hardest and have not committed to become moderates or recognize the fact that if they come to power or part of power they will recognize human rights that did not happen while washington is we valuating whom to support in the fight against assad all qaeda linked groups have made significant gains in the north of syria where they've pushed out other rebel forces in the name of allah the gracious and merciful. when you're firing rockets it's all over fires them with your hands these strikes are only a drop in the ocean the lines of the islamic state are fulfilling their oath from iraq to lebannon these islamist forces are better trained and better armed some of them got their training fighting against the u.s.

in afghanistan in the one nine hundred eighty s. when the u.s. was arming the anti soviet mujahideen in those days some got their experience and their arms fighting against the u.s. in iraq much more recently washington says. the islamic front that it is willing to negotiate with does not include designated terrorist groups like job and the so-called islamic state of iraq and live ont but on the ground in syria there are so many different groups that the labels could be relevant residents of the town of audra near damascus can't name the exact rebel group that executed over eighty civilians there including children earlier this week. the u.s. has supported the syrian opposition on the premise that washington would be able to do different shades of extremists they would figure out which ones are less extreme but even the report that there was no battle over the warehouses between the islamic front and the western backed supreme military council is one indicator of how blurred those lines are and how flawed is the assumption that one can

distinguish with certainty between those groups in washington i'm going to shut down or keep. so where are these radicals coming from and the answer is from almost everywhere and even the most secular european states have identified their citizens financing in syria often on behalf of radical rebels and that's really stands out to warry officials who know that those a. lot of looks not the concerns. the number of europeans heading to syria to fight in the country's going civil war is currently topping the e.u. counter terrorism agenda speaking at a meeting of security officials in brussels the belgian interior minister says as many as fifty thousand the citizens may be involved in the conflict his french counterpart saying well those numbers are on the increase that statement reiterate findings by the international center for the study of radicalization there are

a group based out of king's college in london they suggest that since april of this year the number of europeans going to syria to fight increased three fold the other findings suggest that up to eleven thousand foreign is from as many as seventy different countries may have taken part in the conflict at some point eighteen percent of those coming from western europe the majority of that eighty percent from britain and from france also a contingent from right here in germany in fact in the german state of the interior minister has been proposing a nationwide campaign to try and tackle radicalized satiate this is after a study that found that jihadist recruiters were using universities to try and recruit potential fights is this is all adding to the reason why why the issue of europeans heading to syria to fight is topping the counter to the counterterrorism

agenda because well the leaders of european countries don't know what will happen when these people return home and will they return home radicalized as potential home grown terrorists. being keys deaf pacing ideology common sense that's often london turns down they easy to find food banks despite having more than half a million mots that's how i hungry and she's laura's mass and except one. just a stone's throw from the seat of government in westminster is something that's becoming a more and more common sight in the u.k. this building's used as a food bank handing out emergency supplies to families so poor they can't afford to eat as the cost of living rises the number of people turning to food banks increases with its funding tighter all the time but nevertheless the government has turned down a potential twenty two million pounds in funding for food aid why because the money

comes from the european union britain we've caught i government with a very anti european ideology appears to be more keen to. warn europe to get credit for something than to get money which can how fate hungry people are if you are starving you need some food and you cry to die and this government's refusal to cry in the carriage is literally taking food out to the merits of the hungry the european aid for the most deprived amounts to two and a half billion pounds but the position britain's taken means the country will receive just two point nine million and instead of using the food aid as intended it's expected the government will spend it on helping unemployed people find work all well and good to say critics but there are people who need survival basics now and this money is meant for them. stay with us from breaking.

the parliament of yemen has put forward a motion to ban drone attacks in the country the motion is now waiting approval by the president and it's probably impossible to enforce unless they could build a really big net or something is a bit strange that now after years of drone strikes in their country the parliament just wakes up to the fact their systems are getting blown up from the sky that we fear yemen doesn't have a ton of cash and i could see how having the well equipped and funded u.s. military take care of the al qaeda problem for them for free could be really enticement i mean it must be scary to be a politician with lots of power hungry terrorists about this would be the first time in history that a stronger foreign power for a weaker states battles for them but the problem is that according to the huffington post a former u.s.

state department official in yemen says that every year drone attacks create eight from forty to sixty new terrorists why do they create terrorists because according to the human rights watch seventy percent of the people killed by drones in yemen are civilians you know if the yemeni government is really free from washington's grasp and really wants to deal with their al qaeda problem they'll have better luck doing it themselves with the good old rifles and bayonets pointed at the right targets but that's just my opinion. any force because the car business easton related demand for his cars by offering his workers increased wages in cash but now in america the idea is to increase demand by offering workers access to more debt more credit which is a slippery slope into hell because that debt of course comes in interest payments and the interest of america's debt is that greater than or approaching america's g.d.p. as it is in japan so the global interest in the global debt is approaching the

global g.d.p. and your answer to this. so a brave war tax of credit to collateralize hell where no amount of revenue our taxes will ever pay the debt which is exactly what the plantation owner is what we all be living on the field that. how do you folks i'm out here martin this is breaking the sidewalk to activists in oklahoma are facing serious charges after staging a sparkly demonstration against oil company divine energy for its use of fracking as part of a demonstration the two men under veiled a pair of glittery banners and apparently the war on terror has turned into a war on arts and crafts because local police promptly arrested the two men and charged them with staging a terrorism a hoax as laughable as the charges the punishment for a terrorism hoax in oklahoma is no laughing matter carries

a prison sentence of up to ten years these bogus charges is only distracting from the real issue the devastating effects fracking has on the humans and the environment just this week a new journal i'm sorry a new study from the journal and open ology found the link between the chemicals used in fracking and infertility birth defects and cancer but instead of worrying about these explosive revelations on fracking the government seems more concerned about the letter bombs and let's break this that. it's. very hard to take. ever had sex with such perfect hair.